ABSTRACT
The place of Chlamydia trachomatis in acute or chronic conjunctivitis is certainly underestimated due to the difficulties involved in the diagnosis. Three diagnostic techniques for Chlamydia trachomatis conjunctivitis were compared: conjunctival sac swab for ELISA technique, scraping of the tarsal conjunctiva for direct immunofluorescence and for culture. Two groups of patients were studied: 73 patients with acute or chronic conjunctivitis and 44 asymptomatic patients. 19.2% of the patients in the first group had a positive result with the two techniques and 6.8% of the patients in the second group also had positive results with the same criteria. Our results show that indirect immunofluorescence is the technique most frequently positive, followed by ELISA, while culture remains the most specific but the least sensitive technique. The existence of healthy carriers Chlamydia trachomatis is demonstrated.
